JOHN RUTHERFORD

Thewhitechief.

CHAPTER I.

John Rutherford, according to his own account, was
born at Manchester about the year 1796. He went
to sea, he states, when he was hardly more than ten
years of age, having up to that time been employed
as a piecer in a cotton factory in his native town;
and after that he appears to have been but little
in England, or even on shore, for many years.

He served for a considerable time on board a man-of-war
off the coast of Brazil; and was afterwards at the
storming of San Sebastian, in August, 1813. On
coming home from Spain, he entered himself on board
another king’s ship, bound for Madras, in which
he afterwards proceeded to China by the east passage,
and lay for about a year at Macao.

In the course of this voyage his ship touched at several
islands in the great Indian Archipelago, among others
at the Bashee Islands,[D] which have been rarely visited.
On his return from the east he embarked on board a
convict vessel bound for New South Wales; and afterwards
made two trading voyages among the islands of the
South Sea.

It was in the course of the former of these that he
first saw New Zealand, the vessel having touched at
the Bay of Islands, on her way home to Port Jackson.

His second trading voyage in those seas was made in
the “Magnet,” a three-masted schooner,
commanded by Captain Vine; but this vessel having
put in at Owhyhee,[E] Rutherford fell sick and was
left on that island. Having recovered, however,
in about a fortnight, he was taken on board the “Agnes,”
an American brig of six guns and fourteen men, commanded
by Captain Coffin, which was then engaged in trading
for pearl and tortoiseshell among the islands of the
Pacific.

This vessel, after having touched at various other
places, on her return from Owhyhee, approached the
east coast of New Zealand, intending to put in for
refreshments at the Bay of Islands.

Rutherford states in his journal that this event,
which was to him of such importance, occurred on March
6th, 1816. They first came in sight of the Barrier
Islands, some distance to the south of the port for
which they were making. They accordingly directed
their course to the north; but they had not got far
on their way when it began to blow a gale from the
north-east, which, being aided by a current, not only
made it impossible for them to proceed to the Bay
of Islands, but even carried them past the mouth of
the Thames. It lasted for five days, and when
it abated they found themselves some distance to the
south of a high point of land, which, from Rutherford’s
description, there can be no doubt must have been
that to which Captain Cook gave the name of East Cape.
Rutherford calls it sometimes the East, and sometimes
the South-East Cape, and describes it as the highest
part of the coast. It lies nearly in latitude
37 deg. 42’ S.